PLEA Network

5 January 2016, YALE Climate connections, Managing Climate Information Overload. After more than 15,000 volunteer hours of development, a climate change expert here describes a sophisticated knowledge-management tool to provide ‘actionable’ climate change information to those most needing it … all of us. Many of us over recent years have become all too familiar with the term “too big to fail.” But what about “too big to follow?” That term applies well to the issue of global climate change, where the daily flood of new and worthwhile information and data can easily swamp even the most sophisticated library database information aficionado. What a waste, what a pity. What if policy makers, legislators, educators, and media just plain engaged citizens were more able to gather and digest the vast volumes of authoritative information on the issue, and make it “actionable”? What if we all were able to find that proverbial needle in the haystack that could lead to informed and cost-effective decision making both individually and globally? A pipe dream? Not so fast. ‘If only we knew what we know …’ The recent release of the Climate Knowledge Brokers Manifesto made clear the challenge of the “too big to follow” situation. We’re engulfed by a cacophony of “climate noise.” As John Naisbitt puts it, “we are drowning in information but starved for knowledge.” It’s far more than an academic or theoretical concern: Climate-related decision-making is becoming much more important throughout broad segments of society, nationally and internationally. Read more here